Then said Havelok, “There was naught worth telling, therefore. I suppose I was the child of some steward like Berthun; but yet—”
So he went away, and I wondered long if it were not time that Arngeir should tell all that he knew. It was of no good for me to say that in voice and ways and deed he had brought back to me the Gunnar whom I had not seen for so many long years, for that was as likely as not to be a fancy of mine, or if not a fancy, he might be only a sister’s son or the like. But in all that he said there was no word of his mother, and by that I knew that his remembrance must be but a shadow, if a growing one.
But there was no head in all the wide street that was not turned to look after him; and now he went his way from me with two children, whom he had caught up from somewhere, perched on either shoulder, and another in his arms, and they crowed with delight as he made believe to be some giant who was to eat them forthwith, and ran up the hill with them. No such playmate had the Lincoln children before Havelok came.
[CHAPTER X.
KING ALSI OF LINDSEY.]
Three weeks after we came the Witan[[8]] began to gather, and that was a fine sight as the great nobles of Lindsey, and of the North folk of East Anglia, came day by day into the town with their followings, taking up their quarters either in the better houses of the place or else pitching bright-coloured tents and pavilions on the hillside meadows beyond the stockades. Many brought their ladies with them, and all day long was feasting and mirth at one place or another, as friend met with friend. Never had I seen such a gay sight as the marketplace was at midday, when the young thanes and their men met there and matched their followers at all sorts of sports. The English nobles are far more fond of gay dress and jewels than our Danish folk, though I must say that when the few Danes of Ethelwald’s household came it would seem that they had taken kindly to the fashion of their home.
Our housecarls grumbled a bit for a while, for with all the newcomers dressed span new for the gathering, we had had nothing fresh for it from the king, as was the custom, and I for one was ashamed of myself, for under my mail was naught but the fisher’s coat, which is good enough for hard wear, but not for show. But one day we were fitted out fresh by the king’s bounty in blue and scarlet jerkins and hose, and we swaggered after that with the best, as one may suppose.
Berthun had the ordering of that business, and he came and sat with Eglaf in the gatehouse and talked of it.
“Pity that you do not put your man Curan into decent gear,” the captain said. “That old sailcloth rig does not do either him or you or the court credit.”
“That is what I would do,” said the steward, “but he will not take aught but the food that he calls his hire. He is a strange man altogether, and I think that he is not what he seems.”
“So you have told me many times, and I think with you. He will be some crack-brained Welsh princeling who has been crossed in love, and so has taken some vow on him, as the King Arthur that they prate of taught them to do. Well, if he is such, it is an easy matter to make him clothe himself decently. It is only to tell him that the clothes are from the king, and no man who has been well brought up may refuse such a gift.”